Blinken says US is working with Israel on plan to roll out Gaza polio vaccine drive

Taking questions at his Tel Aviv press conference, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that the US is “never going to give up” on its hostage-ceasefire efforts, but “with every passing day that there’s not an agreement, two things can happen… more hostages can perish… and intervening events come along that may make things more difficult if not impossible.”

“We do see this as the finest opportunity to get this over the finish line,” he says. “We’ll never give up on it, but.. the longer this goes on, the more, again, hostages will suffer and possibly perish…”

Asked whether Netanyahu has definitively accepted a ceasefire as part of the deal, or whether he fears the prime minister may make new demands, Blinken says that the bridging proposal reflects the ceasefire agreement “that President Biden put before the world back in May, that’s incorporated into a UN Security Council resolution, and that makes clear that this process will proceed in phases: The first initial ceasefire over the course of six weeks, in which hostages are released, prisoners are exchanged, and negotiations commence on the conditions necessary for an enduring ceasefire. That’s what the deal says.”

The bridging proposal, he elaborates, “was to try to close some gaps or to clarify different parts of this agreement that needed clarification.”

He adds: “I should have mentioned as well, Prime Minister Netanyahu committed to sending his senior expert team back to either Doha or to Egypt to try to complete this process.”

He tells Hamas and its leadership that “if it genuinely cares about the Palestinian people that it purports to somehow represent, then it will say yes to this agreement, and it will work on clear understandings about how to implement it. Because the single, quickest, best, most effective way to relieve the terrible suffering of the Palestinians that was instigated by Hamas’s attack on October seventh, and the war that ensued, is to complete this agreement.

“So that’s really the question,” he continues. “Is Hamas, is its leadership, actually looking out for Palestinian children, women and men, who are suffering at this very moment in Gaza? And if it is, it will agree. And then we’ll work on making sure that there’s clarity on all sides about how the agreement will be implemented… because not everything is spelled out in detail in the agreement.”

Asked about Netanyahu’s stance regarding control of the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, Blinken says he “can’t comment on specific issues that remain.”

He is asked whether he has heard directly from Hamas on the latest US proposal and says, “obviously, we don’t hear directly from Hamas, but both Egypt and Qatar are in contact with with Hamas.”

Tomorrow, “when I see the leaders of both Egypt and Qatar, I’ll get the latest from them on what they are hearing. I can’t speculate on exactly what Hamas’s intentions are. We’ve seen public statements [from Hamas officials rejecting the proposal], but we’ve seen public statements before that don’t fully reflect where Hamas is.”

Israel has agreed to support efforts to vaccinate Gazans for polio after the territory reported its first case of the disease in 25 years, Blinken also says.

“We’re working with the Israeli government on that, and I believe that we’ll be able to move forward with a plan to do that in the coming weeks. It is urgent. It is vital,” Blinken tells the reporters.

Blinken also says that he asked Israeli leaders to take action against extremist settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank: “We look to see action taken, action taken to prevent that kind of violence, action taken to hold people who are responsible for it accountable.”

Blinken is slated to travel next to Egypt and then Qatar to continue pressure to bring about an overall ceasefire deal.